


Magic Lessons

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-06
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:33:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5652625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma has a lot to learn, but maybe Regina's willing, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magic Lessons

     "If you're going to have control, it helps to have a rhythm. Something to focus on." Regina tried approach after approach, knowing that with Emma's emotions unconfronted and unacknowledged, she would always have a difficult time controlling her magic. They'd been at it for hours, both exhausted but unwilling to quit.   
  
     "A rhythm? You know, now that you mention it, I don't really think I'd make a good ballroom dance partner." Emma's eyes stayed closed, she'd been trying to focus her energies for awhile, getting more impatient and less focused by her frustrations. "What _kind_ of rhythm?"   
  
    "Can you hear your heart beat? A localized, constant rhythm that should come natural to you." Regina lowered her voice to as calming and soothing a register as she could muster. "Let it settle you, center your breathing, and then when you have control-"  
  
     " _Fire!"_ Emma shouted as her fingertips unfurled swirls of hot, pure energy, right at an unsuspecting tree. Well, not  _right_ at it. Emma eyed a scorch mark higher and larger than what she'd intended. "Not quite where I was aiming..."  
  
     "It's a marvel you  _aimed_ at all, given that shot." Regina's eye brows were flared, and she willed them down. Emma Swan  _always_ tried her patience and magic lessons were no different these days. She knew Emma had power, but it was either boxed in or unrestrained and neither would help against any foe. Emma's instability would be a weakness in protecting Henry, and Regina swore that's why she'd been out here for hours, trying to help forge new stability.  "Maybe we should call it an evening, Miss Swan."  
  
      "Is Miss Swan for when I've been a less-than-stellar pupil, now? I just want to give it a few more hacks. You can go if you want." Emma didn't want Regina out here against her will. The insight the mayor afforded into magic was welcome, but the pair was pretty constantly on shaky ground from where Emma could see. "Or talk to me about the rhythm thing again. How can I focus on my heartbeat if magic's what makes it fluctuate in the first place. That or a hot date, I guess." She was tired, achey, and frustrated. Quips were her only salvation until dinner, Emma reasoned with herself.   
  
     "Let's try this. Hold out your hand." Regina paused, second guessing herself for just a second. But maybe it would work. And then she could go home to dinner with Henry, take off her heels, and have a moment of Emma Swan-less peace. "You aren't forcing magic to exist. It's already within you. We're only trying to let it trickle out, okay?" She waited for Emma's nod. "Here. I want you to take my wrist and focus on my pulse." Emma's cold hand slipped around Regina's wrist, willing to try anything. "Settle into my rhythm. Don't release until I say." Regina's voice had a hard, wise edge to it at times like these. Emma almost bit about an authority complex, about a superiority complex, but she let her hand tell her the _hum_ she was supposed to be listening to instead, and she waited for the command to release, letting her magic ebb at the surface, like waves rising to the rhythm of Regina's steady pulse. Emma felt the heat of energy in her hands thrumming to that rhythm, centering her. "Now." Came a whisper from her side, and her magic flowed, a quick, controlled burst, right where she'd intended.   
   
     "Yes! Did you see that?" Dropping Regina's wrist, Emma's hands found her hips in almost-celebration; almost-pride. "Thank you, _Madame Mayor_."  
   
      "What, so you only respect me when I do you a favor? Typical Charming." Regina had felt the stability in Emma's magic that time. She hoped that this meant for today they could go home. Her wrist suddenly felt cold without the heat of Emma's magic curved into it. "I knew you could do it if you  _just_ focused. Henry will be pleased to hear."  
  
     "Is that your way of saying 'you're welcome?'" Emma was already heading back to town, she called over her shoulder at Regina, teasing her even after their long day.   
  
     "It's not like I have a  _choice_ , you can't be out of control and around my son, you know." Years ago Regina knew there would've been more venom in her voice, more  _oomph._ But those threats just weren't serious anymore. "So that means you need to be  _controlled."_  
  
      "Good luck, Your Highness." A facetious, half-bow reminded Regina who she was dealing with. Tomorrow would be another long day of magic lessons, and the day after, and so on, until the embodiment of frustration that Emma Swan was unraveled into a skilled sorcerer. The day would come, Regina swore. 


End file.
